


Questions of Science and Progress

by misaffection



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-28
Updated: 2013-07-28
Packaged: 2017-12-21 16:00:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/902164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misaffection/pseuds/misaffection
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Laura finds a mysterious device, while Rodney reveals a hidden talent.</p><p>Originally posted Jan 7th 2007.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Questions of Science and Progress

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: The device that features in this fic was shamelessly ripped off that which appeared in "Dalek", written by Robert Shearman (Doctor Who, 2005).

The device was dark grey and shaped almost like a heart. It had grooves, obviously where the fingers of one’s hand was meant to go, and a crystal panel. Laura Cadman turned the device over and examined the underside, but was no wiser to its purpose.

“What’s this do?” she asked the laboratory’s only other occupant.

Rodney McKay jumped; he’d not heard anyone come in. He turned and looked at her.

“Why are you here?” he asked in his usual demeaning tone. “I would rather people not to just wander in here whenever they feel like it. And put that down before you break it.”

Laura just lifted an eyebrow. “Firstly, I was sent here since Colonel Sheppard has been trying to reach you on the radio.” She glanced over at one of the tables where it lay. “That radio in fact. Secondly, if you didn’t want people wandering in, you should have shut the door. And lastly, you accuse me of being heavy handed again; I’ll show you just how heavy my hands can be.”

“Whatever,” he snapped and reached for the device. Laura held it over her head. “Oh don’t be so childish!”

“Well try asking nicely.”

“Give it here!”

“The magic word, Rodney.”

“Fine. Please.”

“That’s better,” Laura said. “You still didn’t tell me what it’s for.”

“It’s a toy,” Rodney replied, putting the device on the table next to his radio. “It’s nothing important.”

“A toy?” she echoed, wandering over to the table. She reached out again and Rodney smacked the back of her hand. She shot him a deadly look, which he completely ignored, so she rolled her eyes and settling for simply looking. “I didn’t know the Ancients made toys.”

“Well maybe ‘toy’ is the wrong word. It’s more in the way of- oh, forget the explanation; I’ll show you.”

Rodney turned and leant his butt against the table, the device held loosely in one hand. Laura came closer, intrigued. He glanced at her, gave her a small smirk and then looked down at the device again. He ran the fingers of his other hand over the panel. It glowed a soft blue and emitted a long tone, like a chord played on a keyboard.

Laura blinked. “It’s a musical instrument,” she said in an awed voice.

“Yeah,” Rodney replied quietly. “But that’s all it does.”

“Isn’t that enough?” she asked, looking up at him in some surprise.

“It’s not exactly practical, is it?” He lifted the device and held it before his eyes. Laura saw a dark flicker in their depths.

“Rodney?” she probed gently.

For a moment he just stood there, staring blankly at the instrument in his hand. Then he sighed heavily and put it down again.

“Well it’s very nice, but it’s hardly going to stop the Wraith beating down our door is it?”

“Not everything has to have a purely practical aspect does it? If everything was like that, they’d be no beauty in the world.”

“There’s very little beauty in having the life sucked out of you, Cadman.”

“Exactly,” she said. “But that doesn’t necessarily have to be caused by Wraith.”

Rodney gave her a bemused look. “What the hell are you on about?”

“You’re worrying about the next attack, but who knows when that will be Rodney? What about the time between then and now?”

“Well I hope that’s along time because then I stand a chance of figuring out how we’ll survive.”

“What about actually living, Rodney?”

He stared at her as if she was mad. “I’m living.”

“Are you? I think you’re bouncing from one emergency to the next and taking no time to just be.”

“That’s not true,” he denied defensively.

“Isn’t it?” she challenged softly. She moved until she was facing him head on. “Then why are you here when you off duty?”

“Someone has to…” He trailed off at the expression that crossed her face at his explanation.

“And it has to be you?”

“What else can I do?”

“You can just be. Find the beauty,” she said, nodding her head at the device. Rodney gave a heavy sigh.

“I don’t have a sense for the art,” he said sourly.

Laura blinked. “Okay, we’re not on the same page anymore. What are you talking about?”

“Nothing.”

“Well it’s obviously something. Come on, Rodney. You can tell me.”

He sighed and rolled his eyes. “When I was growing up life was… difficult. My parents were always arguing and I was more or less ignored, except when I was being blamed for something. I had one escape, and that was music.”

“I never knew,” Laura murmured. “What did you play?”

“Piano. I wanted to be a concert pianist. I’d be pretty hard to ignore then, wouldn’t I?”

Laura gave him a sympathetic smile. She stepped up next to him and hugged his arm. “So what happened?”

He gave a humourless laugh. “I was told I had no sense of art. A fine clinical player, but no emotion, no soul.”

“How old were you?”

“Twelve.”

“God.”

“So I quit. Turned to science because it held the same sense of order. I guess it was a kind of security blanket. Pathetic, I know, but I’d never felt secure. I certainly don’t now.”

Laura looked at him for a moment, then reached past him and picked up the device. Rodney arched an eyebrow as she placed it into his hands. She looked up, her eyes shining with something he couldn’t place.

“You have a soul,” she said softly. “I’ve seen it.”

“And?” he said. He was trying to sound snappish but didn’t quite pull it off.

“Play it again, Rodney,” she said and he rolled his eyes.

“Was that really necessary? And why?”

“No, probably not, and because I want to hear you create something beautiful.”

Rodney looked pained. Laura gave him her best winsome smile and he sighed. He altered his grip on the device and then ran his fingers over it. The same melodious sound echoed slightly around the room.

The chord changed as he moved his hand and then a distinctly minor key emerged. He winced and stopped.

“I can’t do this,” he told Laura. She shook her head, not having any of it.

“Stop trying to find the science Rodney.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re still trying for perfection. Stop striving and be in the moment.”

“Wax on, wax off?” he quipped. Laura grinned.

“Yes, Rodney-san. Now, stop stalling and play me something.”

“Okay.”

He started over. This time though, he relaxed and concentrated on the sounds the device made, rather than how it made them. To his utter amazement, something like an actual tune emerged, proving Laura’s theory right.

“Whoa,” he said and glanced at her. She was grinning at him, her eyes shining.

“See?” she said and clapped her hands. “Very nice.”

“Nice? Nice?!”

“Okay, beautiful,” she laughed. He gave her a lopsided smirk.

“Wasn’t too bad at all. I guess you were right.”

“I have my moments.”

Rodney, however, was wondering something. “Why did you do this?”

“Do what?”

“Push me into trying.”

Laura shrugged. “Because I saw a need,” she told him. “And it sounded so pretty, I wanted to hear you do it again.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I just wanted to see how talented your hands really are.” She gave him a wicked grin.

Rodney chuckled. “Oh I could show you.”

“Could you now?”

There was an awkward silence as Rodney just sort of stared at Laura and she sort of wished herself elsewhere.

“Um,” he said finally, his voice cracking. “Aren’t-aren’t you seeing Carson?”

Laura rolled her eyes. “No, dimwit. We broke up weeks ago. How did you think we were seeing each other when I was spending all my downtime bugging you?”

“Oh,” Rodney said, at a loss as what else to say to that.

“Yeah, ‘oh’,” she retorted, crossing her arms and challenging him with a look. “So what are you going to do about it?”

Rodney glanced down at the device in his hands. He turned it once and then again, thinking over the question. The answer came to him like the ability to play this thing had.

“Did you know I can cook?” he asked her cheerfully.


End file.
